Seven Deadly Sins
by Ash The Wanderer
Summary: As darkness looms on the horizon, the Z Warriors are subjected to terrible nightmares that reach right into their hearts and souls to terrify them with twisted desires and destructive feelings...(The prequel to Atrocities)
1. Wrath

**__**

Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath

Or

I Crown Thee King

(Note: This is placed in the General Section because we lack a horror section in the DBZ, er, place. Otherwise, this would have gone in there. I will warn you, all these short stories could be very disturbing. If you read on, you have been warned. And Vegeta fans, beware)

His hair was ruined.

He was sitting here, the coppery taste of blood in his mouth, the ache of sore and exhausted muscles radiating through him, and all he could think about was that his hair was ruined.

The irony that the greatest concern of the prince of the saiya-jins would be his now badly chopped and messy hair instead of his own well being was not lost on Vegeta. Again, he struggled to get free and failed. Whatever material held him to this chair where he sat, it was something immensely strong.

As a Super Saiya-jin, Vegeta felt he could probably rip it apart like paper.

But to Vegeta's shock, he could not summon that power, the power that rage triggered within him to make him the mightiest warrior in the universe, the power that he would one day use to defeat Kakarott. Without it, he seemingly could not break free of this chair, this chair someone had imprisoned him on.

He wondered what Kakarott was doing, if he and his baka friends knew that his prince was misisng, and if he did know, if he was trying frantically to find him. Kakarott never had any respect for royalty, but he knew that somewhere in Kakarott's pea-sized brain he would find a reason to save him. The fact that he had to be saved made Vegeta sick to his utter core. This was not right.

Then he heard the chuckle.

"Comfortable, Prince?"

And with the voice, the voice he knew all too well, he realized that he hadn't even begun to grasp the depths of wrongness that had led to this position, even as the darkness began to fade away to reveal the figure who had been watching him, apparently for some time.

"No! You're dead!"

"Am I?" Freiza said, walking in from the shadows, his black lips twitching up in a cruel smile, a smile Vegeta had seen far too many times. "That's news to me. Last time, I checked, I was still alive!"

Vegeta looked at Freiza in fury with an undertone of confusion. How could Freiza be alive again? Well, Vegeta knew that possible answer, but from the way he was acting, it was like Freiza never had any idea that he had died. And that was impossible. Not matter how hard Vegeta had tried, and the mental effort he had expended in the attempt would literally move mountains, he could not forget the two times he had died. If he couldn't do it, neither could Freiza.

"I saw you die! My son carved you into pieces! You're dead!" Vegeta yelled, and began to struggle again to get out of his bonds. 

Freiza just laughed, and the laughter unnerved Vegeta greatly. There was so much…amusement…in it.

"MWA HA HA HA! If I had known that such babble would come out of the mouth of a saiya-jin when I tied him to a chair, I would have done it more often! Such ridiculous nonsense! As if anyone could beat me, much less a son that doesn't exist!" Freiza chortled.

"What are you talking about? You know you died! It was after your defeat at the hands of Kakarott…"

Then Freiza's fist smashed across Vegeta's face, wrenching his neck painfully to the side. As blood began to pour from his broken nose, Vegeta's head swung back, his eyes clouded with disbelief. This was impossible. All the time and years he had spent training had increased his power to levels beyond comprehension. Vegeta could summon the power to destroy galaxies in minutes, a power even Freiza had never had. Even as a normal saiya-jin, Vegeta should have been able to shrug off the blow without any repercussions.

Unless…

"Fool. Not only do you suggest that I could be defeated, but you suggest it twice! I am Freiza! I will never lose, never!"

And as Freiza hissed this in his face, Vegeta looked down apon himself.

And the horror came on full force. It was true.

His body was smaller, much smaller then the body he remembered, as if all the decades of training had been swept away. And in a way, they had, for Vegeta was looking at the body he had long ago, long before he had even come to earth to seek immortality.

The body of when he was a child.

"Poor Vegeta. Not only does he betray me by plotting with his father to kill me, but when I confront him he actually has the gall to suggest that I could be defeated! The nerve of you children!"

"No! I'm not a child! I'm a super saiya-jin! I'm…" Vegeta yelled before Freiza slammed his fist into his mouth, snapping his head back violently and scrambling his thoughts.

"Enough babbling. Super saiya-jin…silly legend! Well Vegeta, you will be a legend as well. Except it won't be as a warrior. Oh no, instead it will be as an example of what happens when you betray me!"

Vegeta's head swam. How was this possible? Could his life, his battles, his warriorhood all have been a dream, a dream that had passed through his mind as he faded in and out of consciousness while trapped in this chair? Could some force have turned back time and changed history? Could Freiza have returned and somehow trapped him in the body of a child, having grown so mad in hell that he had forgetten that he had died?

"Tell me Vegeta, do you have any last words?"

"FUCK YOU YOU BAKA! LET ME OUT, I WILL DESTROY YOU! I WILL…"

Then Freiza's fist slammed into his head again, sandwitching his head between the metal of the chair he sat in and his fist. Stars exploded in his vision.

"Stupid child. Even imprisonned, you think you are a king! Well, you are a king now, your father has "unfortunately" passed on! So, let us crown you in a manner fitting!"

As Vegeta's senses slowly came back, he realized two things.

The first was that the chair he was imprisonned on, manacled at the wrists and ankles, was indeed a throne, a metal throne.

The second was that it was starting to get hot.

Vegeta struggled, but he could not escape, and the heat went past the point of being uncomfortable to starting to hurt. He made a low keening sound and redoubled his efforts, but it was futile.

"Ah, but what is a king without a sceptre?"

Then Vegeta felt his right fingers being forced open.

Then he howled as they were closed on something burning. He looked down in horror as he saw that Freiza had closed his hands on a sceptre of the same metal, a sceptre that was glowing red from the heat. The pain was terrible, and Vegeta could smell the stink of his own flesh roasting as he tried to release his grip. But he couldn't, as the heat had cooked the inside of his hand and caused the flesh to literally fuse with the metal, even as the heat continued to burn down through his hand.

But the pain in his hand was soon replaced as the throne he sat on continued to grow hotter and hotter. Vegeta felt the clothing he wore begin to smoke. He yelled, screamed, and fought with the desperation of wanting to survive, if only so he could kill Freiza for this, but he could not escape. His skin began to burn, and he screamed, a scream that mingled with Freiza's chuckled, which eventually turned into terrible, uproarous laughter as he watched Vegeta roast on the red-hot throne he now sat on.

"And above all else, what is a king without a crown?"

Then it came down on his head, an inferno of new pain in the form of a metal crown heated white-hot. Vegeta screamed even louder as the skin and hair around his head caught fire, even as other parts of his body began to catch fire as well.

And Freiza laughed as he watched Vegeta cook.

"And after all, a kind needs subjects. Here are your people, Vegeta! Normally they would serve you, but instead I think I will serve you…TO THEM! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! WELCOME TO MY BARBAQUE!"

And even as the pain began to cloud Vegeta's vision with white, he saw the door open. Saw the men and women come tumbling out, saiya-jin men and women. Saw their unkempt condition, and above all else, saw the utter wild and ravenous looks in all their faces, like rabid beasts. They were utterly starving.

Despite the pain, the horrible torture, Vegeta saw the saiya-jins coming towards him, and he somehow found the strength to scream even as he felt his insteads begin to fry.

"NO! I am your…"

And then they were on him, and Vegeta's cries were drowned out as they tore into him with their hands, ripping, tearing, rupturing, eating, feasting…

"NO! FATHER!" Trunks screamed as he sat up in bed. "DON'T HURT HIM! IT'S MY FAULT! MY…fault…" Trunks said as he realized that he was now in his bedroom. Shuddering, Trunks blinked repeatly to make sure he was back to reality, as he realized that the terrible thing he had seen was not reality, but only the visions of his subconscious mind.

"A dream. It was a dream…thank kami, a dream…but…but…"

Pushing his hair out of his face, Trunks got out of his bed and stood on unsteady legs. He realized that he was soaked in sweat, and that his sheets were as well. Letting the cool night air calm his fevered mind, Trunks could not dispell the nagging feeling of terror and something being wrong.

So he found himself leaving his room and walking down the hallway, heading towards the room where his father slept and banging on the door, hoping, praying…

"WHAT IS IT YOU BAKA!?!??!" Vegeta yelled as he opened the door angrily. "Trunks, what is it, stupid bakayero!"

"Toussan…you're alive!" Trunks said in a wheezing gasp of relief. Indeed, it was all he could think to say. 

Vegeta looked at his son, wondering if he had gone crazy to come and interrupt him while he was busy, just to be relieved that he was alive.

"Of COURSE I'M ALIVE, YOU BAKA! In fact, I was trying to create another life when you interrupted me! Go back to bed!" Vegeta said, and slammed the door in his son's face.

Trunks sighed in relief. It had been just a nightmare. An incredibly vivid nightmare, but a nightmare none the less.

But even so, Trunks knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep for a while.

So he wandered down the hall, to a room where Goten and Marron were crashing. He was about to go in and talk with his best friend, like they used to do when they were kids, when he remembered Marron. Carefully, he put his ear to the door. The sounds he heard confirmed it, Goten was busy. He would have to find something else to occupy his time.

So Trunks wandered the house until he found himself in the kitchen. He took a box of cookies off the shelf and began to eat, hoping the sweet treats would take his mind off the horror.

They didn't work, so Trunks tried a cake he found. When that didn't work, he tried brownies. He was eating his way through a cartoon of ice cream when he heard a faint noise. A few seconds later Marron walked into the kitchen, dressed in a bathrobe.

"Trunks! What are you doing up?" she asked.

"Eating ice cream." Trunks said in a dead voice. Marron took a close look at Trunks's face and could see a faint glistening coming from a liquid. Tears.

"Do you sweat while you eat?" she asked.

"It's really good ice cream." Trunks said in a same dead voice, as he continued to spoon the frozen sweet into his mouth. He was more then a tad surprised when Marron snatched the ice cream from him and sat down in a chair in front of him.

"What's wrong?"

Trunks sighed, figured there was no point in lying, and told her.

"…it was just so REAL! Like I was seeing the future or something…and even though it was a dream…I can't help but feel responsible…that I was the cause that my father suffered Freiza's wrath in that dream…I just feel so bad about it…I wanted to talk to Goten but he's probably alseep if you're down here…I know he can be a very restless sleeper at times…I slept in the same bed as him all the time when we were kids…but I'm glad I spoke with your Marron. I do feel better now."

"That's good Trunks. It's ok. Nightmares can be horrible, but they're just dreams. They can't hurt you. It's over now."

Elsewhere, in a place that Trunks could have never known about , a figure sat in the chair he was bound in and watched Trunks and Marron talk. He cracked a cruel smile, and chuckled. It had worked even better then he had thought.

"Over, Marron? Oh no…" the figure said evily, as the view from the hologram protector changed. Now it showed Goten, sprawled across the bed, fast asleep with a dumb grin on his face.

"It has only just begun!"

__

The time is drawing near…

****

ATROCITIES


	2. Gluttony

**__**

Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony
    
    God I'm so hungry.

I don't know what to do. Everything in the fridge is gone. Everything in the cupboard is gone. I've eaten everything. Every last crumb. I even ate the baking soda right out of the box.

But I didn't stop it. This raw gnawing pit in my stomach! My need to devour is devouring _me_, it's eating me up from the inside! I feel like I'm going to die! I have to eat something, anything, NOW!

Mom's plant. Ugh, it's bitter, but I have to…BLERGH! God I'm still voracious! More food! More food!

Outside now. The tree. More leaves, ugh, bitter leaves. Ugh, the bark is even worse! Dear god, the whole tree's gone already. Did I eat the whole thing? How could I eat a whole tree?

Oh god, I'm still utterly famished. This is terrible. I love eating, but if this is what my love of it gives me…ARGH! Have to eat! ANYTHING!

Digging up the ground, swallowing the earth, so wet, moist, and bitter…was that justa worm I sucked down? WHO CARES? More dirt! Ugh, beetles…MORE FOOD.

Still so hungry…there's a bird! DIE BIRD! No time to cook it, must eat it now! Ugh…oh, I think it's going a-wwwwwwaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh! It's worse then ever! It's like I have a blast furnace inside my stomach! It's burning up the food before it even gets down my throat! I need more!

Grass, cows eat grass, rip it up, need bigger hands to get more down! Need food, anything at all! Rocks, swallow them, argh that hurt…but my stomach hurts more!

There's a fruit tree…YES! EAT! EAT! MUST EAT! Oh god, it's already gone…damn, father never had it this bad! Need to eat more! Food! Food!

Little creatures running through the bushes…catch them and swallow them down…barely chewing, don't need to, just have to eat…MORE! NEED MORE! God, am I bleeding or is that their blood….oh, stomach feels like I've been eating red-hot irons…

Noise…what is that noise…car? People? Pic-FOOD!

"Hey, who are you…ARRGGGHHHH! HELP!"

"DADDY!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

"DADDY! DADDY! DA-GORSH!"

"HELP!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH……!"

Food. So much food…must eat it all…all gone already? What's all this blood…where did it come from… my shirt…soaked…ARGH! Must eat! Eat my own shirt! Argh, gone already, eat what now? Eat the car? Can I eat the car? I can try!

God, I ate the car…and I still need to eat! This is horrible!

More cars…more people…FOOD!

FOOD, EAT, EAT EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much blood……so many screams…don't care, just have to EAT!

Eat…eat…girl…blonde hair…know her…ARGH?

"Goten! Oh my god! What have you done? You've…"

DON'T NEED TO KNOW MUST EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Goten? Goten, what are you doing? GOTEN! GOTEN NO PLEASE! GOT-IIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I can eat now.

Oh god…I'm finally full…no more burning pain in my stomach…at last this nightmare is over…

Oh my god…all the blood…dear god…what did I do to…

What's this in front of me? Can't see, vision blurry…feels warm…and wet…vision clearing…oh god, it's not…it can't be a corpse! No, I didn't…

OH MY GOD! MARRON! OH NO! I DIDN'T! I COULDN'T OF! No…no no no no no no…I…I…

WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?

MARRON!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…

"…OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" Goten screamed as he sat up in his bedroom, his mind afire with fear.

"I couldn't have done it! No matter how hungry I got, I couldn't have…couldn't have….oh god, a dream…just a dream…" Goten gasped, taking long panting breathes.

"Just…a…Marron?" Goten said, finally noticing that the bed was empty save for him. The fear came back full force.

"Marron? MARRON! WHERE ARE YOU? MARRON!" Goten screamed as he leapt out of the bedroom and ran down the unfamilar hall. In the back of his mind Goten remembered he was at the Capsole Corp building, he had been crashing at Trunks's house.

"MARRON!" He screamed, not caring if he woke anyone up. 

"Goten? What is it?" Marron said as she ran up the stairs, followed closely by Trunks. Goten's frantic screaming had startled them out of their talking, and they had headed for his yells before he woke up half the neighbourhood, or worse, Vegeta.

"Goten, are you…ERGH!" Marron cut off in a gasp as her husband ran forward and practically crushed her in his arms.

"Goten! Goten sweetie, I can't breathe!"

"Oh, sorry. I'm just glad you're safe…I thought…I thought…"

"Dear god Goten, you're as white as a sheet! What happened?" Trunks asked, glancing nervously up the hall to see if his father would come out. Luck must have been with them as no one emerged.

"What happened, love?" Marron asked her husband. Goten, now finally calmed down, actually broke out in an embarrassed grin, bringing his hand behind his head in a mannerism he had picked up from his father.

"Oh…heh heh heh, it's actually pretty stupid. I just had a really bad nightmare…"

Now it was Trunks's turn to pale.

"Trunks? Are you ok? What did I say?"

Trunks licked his lips slowly. The fact that both he and Goten had had nightmares did not mean anything, nor did the fact that they had happened so close together.

But the fact that BOTH had been so strong, so visually realistic, to inspire such continued terror after awakening…that did not add up in Trunks's mind. And the possible solution to the problem chilled him.

"I think we had better talk, Goten."

"Dear god, I didn't think yours could be as bad as mine, but it was. Yours used the way you love to eat against you, by giving you the uncontrollable urge to have to eat everything. It would almost be funny…until it came to the point where you were eating the woman you love…that kind of kills the humour."

"Tell me about it." Goten said, sitting in the chair across from Trunks and holding his wife close with one arm. "It was like Toussan's nightmare…the one he had where Agony came back. But his love of eating was tied to his love of us…hence what happened. But mine was simply about my eating…but even so, it does suggest the possibility of a link."

"Indeed." Trunks said gravely. "But if there is a pattern…a link, what does it mean? How is it happening?"

"I've got a somewhat more chilling question guys." Marron said. "Who's next?"

The figure chuckled.

"Oh, this is so much fun…who shall be next, indeed…ah, I know."

The figure tapped the keys on the panel that was at his fingertips, and the 3D holographic image switched away from the conversing hybrids and human. Now it was again on a sleeping figure.

"You don't like to fight, Son Gohan? Well, let's just see if you still feel that way after I'm done…because when I come, you'll need every fighting instinct you have…as futile as they will be…heh heh heh heh HA HA HA HA!"

__

The evil is drawing closer…an evil that again threatens to consume all…

****

ATROCITIES


	3. Sloth

**__**

Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth
    
    Gohan was doing his favorite activity ever since the whole Agony spectacle had come to an end: lying on the couch while surfing with the clicker. His head propped comfortably against some pillows, Gohan lazily channel-surfed, not really wanting to watch anything but not wanting to do anything else either.

"Gohan!" came a voice. Gohan grimaced. Here comes the hurricane again.

"Gohan, there's a report on the radio! There's a robbery at the 2nd national Satan City bank! We have to go stop it!" Videl said as she came into the room. Gohan looked at her in a way that required the least amount of effort.

"The police can handle it, Videl."

"But Son Gohan! According to reports, the criminals have some pretty serious hardware! They've already destroyed several police cars and wounded two officers! If you don't get there soon, someone could get killed."

"So be it then."

Videl gaped at her husband.

"WHAT?"

"Videl, I can't always hold the police's hands! If I had never been born, what would the police do? They'd have to find a way! And if they didn't, they didn't! Life is cruel!"

Gohan turned his head away from his wife, back to the television.

"Besides, my constant assisstance is making the police lazy. They think that I'll show up and help them with everything. They have to handle some things by themselves. Learn to fend off these criminals's without me."

Videl glowered, fury bubbling in her heart. But there was nothing she could do. She had been through this with her husband before. Once he had made his mind up on something, he would never change it.

But recently, he had simply become more and more stubborn on more and more things, refusing to help her with chores, or to train her daughter, or even to do his projects at work. Instead, she found him on the couch more and more, lazing around. But no matter how many times she had confronted him, Gohan wouldn't budge.

Sighing angrily, she turned her back on him.

"Very well. I'll handle it myself."

"Good luck honey. Just make sure you don't coddle the police." Gohan said to his wife's retreating back. Then he went back to channel surfing.

Some time later, Gohan heard a door open, and then his daughter came in.

"Father! I want to train with you this afternoon! Grandfather was doing something with grandmother and thus he can't train me!" Pan said, looking at her father lying on the couch, like he had been doing so for god knows how long.

There was silence.

"Father?"

"Pan, train by yourself."

Pan's eyes widened with surprise and hurt. She couldn't believe that her father had just said what he had said. Even worse, he had said it so calmly, so unemotionally, with such a lack of caring.

"But father…why?"

"Pan, you need to strike out on your own. Do stuff for yourself, get to know yourself better! Only then can you become truly strong!"

"But father…"

"No buts Pan. Go train by yourself. I am not going to help."

Pan looked at her father, and then as she felt the tears coming up, she turned and ran out of the room.

"I hate it when people interrupt my favorite show." Gohan muttered, and went back to his television.

Even later, as night began to fall, Gohan heard footsteps going around the house, his wife having come back from her heroism a short time ago. He listened to them going up the stairs. He pondered on whether to ask her how it had gone, then decided against it. She would eventually come down and speak with him anyway.

So he continued to lay there, watching the flickering lights of the television, until something else caught his ear. Footsteps, coming down the stairs, rapidly.

A second later, Videl stormed into the room.

"OK GOHAN, THIS IS IT! I HAVE HAD IT! I HAVE TRIED TO BE NICE, AND IT AIN'T WORKING! GET THE FUCK OFF YOUR ASS, AND DO IT NOW!"

"Something wrong dear?" Gohan said calmly.
    
    "I just went upstairs, and you know what I found? I found your daughter, in her room, crying her eyes out because her father was too lazy to get up and train with her! She feels you don't love her anymore! Well, I've had it! She's right, ever since Agony was defeated you have been neglecting everything! All you do is lie on that sofa! I sweayr that you must draw nutrienst from it, that you are bonded to it, that if we tried to separate you from it you would suffer terrible pain, even death! I am sick of your laziness!"

"Well too bad Videl, because I deserve it." Gohan replied calmly.

Videl stopped dead mentally.

"What…did you…why?"

"What has the world ever done for me, Videl? NOTHING! When I defeated Cell, your father took the credit! When I became The Great Saiyaman, everyone took me for granted! When I helped defeat Buu, no one cared! Why should I help the world? And as for Pan, well, she should be grateful! I've giving her free will! My childhood, everyone controlled me! My mother forced me to study, study, study every second of the day, and when I wasn't studying I was going through agonizing exhausting training with my father, or Piccolo, or Kaioushin, or someone else, or I was fighting for my life! And in the end, all my efforts gained me nothing! My battle with Cell killed my father! My attempt to defeat Agony got ME killed! All I have ever done has given me JACK SHIT. So I have every right to be lazy! I've earned it, and I'm going to do it." Gohan said. 

Videl nearly fell to her knees, the strength had gone completely out of her legs. Gohan had not raised his voice the whole time, keeping it an even monotone…almos as if…as if…

As if he didn't want to expend the effort needed to yell.

"Oh…Gohan…"

"You know I'm right Videl. If the hell my life had been has given me anything, it gave me knowledge in knowing when I'm right. Now please go cook dinner, I'm hungry."

Videl began slowly backing away. She knew she was going to cry, and she didn't want to do it in front of her husband…the man she had give her heart do…who seemed to care more about his right to relax.

Then there was a short series of musical chimes.

"There's the doorbell, get that will you?" Gohan muttered. Nodding numbly, Videl turned to get the door, not even noticing her daughter standing at the head of the stairway, drawn by the argument, and now looking as shocked as Videl did over their twin revelation.

Gohan lay contently on the couch. Being so smart was good. It allowed him to play mind games with the best of them. He heard Videl undo the lock and began to wonder how much longer he could get her to wai on him hand and foot.

Then there was a scream followed by a terrible crash.

"MOTHER! MOTHER!" Pan screamed, as Gohan jerked his head at the noise. Then he heard Pan scream as well as another shattering explosion rent the air. From his vantage point, Gohan saw blood spray on a wall. His jaw dropped as mind was overwhelmed with sheer horror, as a distant memory came to him from a week ago…

__

"Gohan, there's been a serious of murders going around in this area…apparently it's a robbery motive and the people doing it don't like to leave witnesses…"

"Let the police take care of it…"

As Gohan's mind formed around that his laziness may have just cost his wife and daughter their lives, he heard the laughter. His mind snapped, and he lunged upward.

And stopped dead as pain blasted through his entire being. He crumbled back on the couch, writhing in sheer agony.

"What…?" he managed to moan.

Then he heard the voice.

****

You and I are one now Gohan. You can't separate from me…you can never separate from me…even if it costs you your life…because your need to survive and care has been surpassed by your need to be lazy!

Gohan's vision had blurred from the pain, but he was able to hold up his arm.

And see the throbbing threads, a twisted nightmare between veins and wires, coming out of his hand, his arm, running down into the couch, linking him, incapacitating him, even as the robber's footsteps came towards him, the robber making sure he left no witnesses at all…

****

YOU NEED ME.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"…OOOOOO!" Gohan screamed as he sat up gasping, sucking in great big breaths of air.

"No…I'm not…I'm not…wha…"Gohan said in a breathless rush as his eyes adjusted to his new surroundings. The realization was not long in coming.

"Just a nightmare…but…"

Then he heard a small murmur and turned. His wife stirred, still fast asleep, stirred, tried in sleep to get more of the blankets that Gohan had inadvertingly pulled off of her when he had sat up in a panic.

Smiling, Gohan put the covers back onto her, but the smile quickly faded. The nightmare had seemed so vivid, so real… and it hit Gohan close to home.

__

I like to relax, it's true…but I would never do that! No matter what happened to me! I would never become that embittened with life! It's done a lot to me, but it's given a lot too…but still…maybe I'll be a little more helpful to Videl…and spend more time with Pan…fighting my not b3e my greatestjoy like Toussan but it appears Pan will be taking after her grandfather…and I may as well help her in any way I can…instead of sitting in front of the boob tube…

As Gohan slid back down onto the bed, he reached over and put an arm around his wife. Almost at the same time, she made a small noise as if she knew he was trying to apologize for something and she accepted, even if it had just been the events of a crazy dream.

"I love you." Gohan whispered, and kissed his wife on the cheek before sleep slowly reclaimed him…

"Oh, how touching." The figure chuckled. "Better love your wife while you can, Gohan. You will find that history has a way of repeating itself…only this time, you won't be coming back to life."

The figure tapped a few more keys on the keyboard, and the 3D holographic image of Gohan and Videl vanished.

"Now…who to…_warn_ next…"the figure said, and chuckled as if the joke was the best and most delicious that had ever been said.

"Ah, I know…"

The figure tapped a few more keys, and the image re-appeared, this time showing another couple sleeping peacefully. The figure laughed and pressed a few buttons to begin his latest nightmare.

"Scream for me, you two. Scream…you and all your friends will be doing plenty of it…soon…very soon…Mwahahahahahahha HA!"

__

They can't stop it…they can't escape it…they may not SURVIVE IT…

****

ATROCITIES


	4. Lust

**__**

Seven Deadly Sins: Lust
    
    I have to have her.

All my life I've been waiting, waiting for something that I knew deep down wouldn't be coming. She always found another. And even if she hadn't, she never would have noticed me. Why would she? I was always a friend, her silly little friend who she met while looking for the Dragon Balls

Well, time to show her I'm dead serious.

I may have married another. I may have had children with her. And I tried to love her, despite all the abuse she tended to heap on me when she was displeased. But I couldn't deny these feelings. This terrible burning desire I've had since I was a kid. I have tried to defeat them as I have defeated my foes. But it didn't stop. If anything, it grew stronger. I'm not denying it any more. It has to be fed, or it will cosume me from within.

She thinks I'm her friend. That will give me the advantage of surprise. Even if I've been sitting outside her window all this time, she won't see me as a threat.

I regret having to do this, but I can't deny these needs any longer. It took me forever to figure out the precise time when she would be alone, when everyone she knew would be occupied elsewhere, and when she would be in a place where no one would hear her.

At least she won't remember it.

I think I'm going mad. I don't think my libido has ever been this strong in my lifetime. I guess loving and hurting truly are so deeply connected that the body can and will mistake one for the other with ease.

She's here.

She's dressed for bed…so lovely…I can't **_WAIT ANY LONGER!_**

CRASH!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, it's you…what are you doing he-AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HELP! VEGETA, **HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

Release. After decades of longing, release. At long last my desires are sated. At last I can live my life in true peace.

Dear god, we made a mess. A human would be hard pressed to cover up the evidence. But I'm not just any human. Now I have to concentrate. If I do this properly, and focuss my ki energy, I can send an incredibly small jolt into that section of her brain and wipe out her short-term memory. She won't be able to recall anything in the past several days, because there won't be anything to recall. Then I can wreck the room and make up any story I like about an attacker. I could always say I go so mad to discover her being raped that I nuked the whole room. No one's ever going to dream that I was the doer of the terrible deed.

Wait a minute……………….oh no……..SHE'S NOT BREATHING! Oh shit, I must have clamped my hand over her face too hard! I cut off her air, and I was so caught up in…oh no, how long has she been without oxygen?

My watch says fouty minutes. How could forty minutes have gone by so fast! I have to…to…

I can't do anything. She's dead.

I have killed Bulma Briefs.

Oh god, what am I going to do? How can I cover this up? Vegeta will kill me in a way I can't conceive of! I have to get away! No, they could trace me…

FIRE! I have to burn down this building! Destroy all the evidence, including Bulma's body!

And this bedsheet looks very flammible…

Well, I did it. I set the place on fire and got away. I'm sure I made it all the way back here to the Kame House without being seen. Thank god this is Master Roshi's Hooters Night and he took the Turtle with him. I'm pretty sure I can't be traced either, I made sure everything was…incinerated, and I was ultra-careful to keep my ki down so Vegeta wouldn't sense it. I'm sure he's there now. Vegeta…I wish I could say that I was sorry…but I never liked you. But I do feel for Trunks…and Bra…but I couldn't live with this burning lust in my soul any longer. I had to sate it.

I think I can live with the guilt.

At least I can live here, in my wonderful home…with my wonderful…wait a minute, what's this note on my door.

"Krillian, I know what you are doing tonight. You couldn't hide anything from me, you never could. After I dared to give you my heart, you have broken it. I can't live with the grief and shame you have brought apon me…goodbye."

What….OH NO! EIGHTEEN! Eighteen, there on the bed…on dear god, she slit her wrists! God, her blood's all over the bed! I have to save her…no pulse. Oh god, no, what I have done? I've killed the woman I love! NO! EIGHTEEN, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

"NO!" Krillian screamed as he sat up. "Eighteen…oh god…I was having a nightmare…but what a nightmare…oh…Eighteen…."

"What?" said a somewhat sleepy and a tad annoyed voice, as Eighteen slowly sat up from her place next to Krillian and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "You keep calling me, what's wrong?"

Krillian sighed in relief, and then a blush bloomed on his face.

"Uhhhhh…well, it's kinda silly actually…" Krillian stammered. Now awake, Eighteen looked at her husband with wry eyes.

"What is it, Krillian? If you woke me up you might as well tell me."

__

I'm dead. Krillian thought, his face still on fire.

"Well…Eighteen…I had this terrible nightmare…" Krillian stammered, and slowly told Eighteen of the whole dream that moments ago had horrified him to the core. The fact that Krillian seemed incredibly disturbed by the dream cut no dice with Eighteen, who's eyes got considerably more and more cross as Krillian went on.

"And that's what happened…Eighteen? Are you mad?"

"You're dreaming of raping Bulma and me commiting suicide over it? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! I WOULD NEVER KILL MYSELF, I'D KILL YOU FIRST! PERVERT! HENTAI!" Eighteen yelled as she snatched up her pillow and began beating Krillian with it. Krillian cowered.

"Eighteen…I'm sorry…I don't know where it came from! I love you! Please don't hurt me!" Krillian whimpered, and something in his voice made Eighteen stop her barrage of blows before she switched to her fists and booted Krillian down to the couch.

Eighteen looked at her husband, the way he was cowering from her, and her anger softened. _He's right…he can't control what he dreams…it's just random images…perhaps it means nothing after all…_

"Krillian?" Eighteen asked softly, and Krillian lowered his arms and looked at his wife with some surprise. _I expected to be halfway down the stairs by now…_

"Yeah?"

"Just one question. Did you ever like Bulma?"

"Bulma? Well I did have a crush on her once…"

The cross look flared back to life in Eighteen's eyes.

"But that was when I was a young kid! It faded years before I met you! Bulma's a friend, but I love you." Krillian said, expecting to be tossed out of the bed anyway.

He was even more surprised as Eighteen's angry look again faded and she got up from her sitting position and kneeled down.

"Oh Krillian…I love you too…and I'm sorry. I know I have a trigger temper…it seems you've suffered the effects of that more then I thought. But you are right, I can sense the truth in your words….and you're right. Dreams are just random images…and while they can tell you something…I think this one was just some strange effect a piece of food had on you or something. Can you forgive me?" Eighteen said softly.

"Well, I…" Krillian said, before his wife leaned forward and kissed him, pressing her soft lips to his. His continued apologies faded as the world seemed to do the same around him. After an eternity, Eighteen broke the miss, a smirk on her face.

"Forget Bulma Briefs…I'll give you something to dream about…" Eighteen said as she reached down and began to pull on the hem of her nightgown, causing it to start drawing open.

Krillian smiled and began to move forward on the bed as well. _Lust…when it comes to love, that's nothing…_

"Bah!" the figure cursed, as Eighteen's image began to shrug off her nightgown as her husband embraced her. With clear irritation, the figure stabbed his finger down on a familiar button on his control panel and the image vanished, replace by a 3-D image of the Kame House.

"I meant to sow dissention between them, not bring them closer together! Love." The figure said with disgust. "Even with my genius I can't figure out why it can cause such extreme opposite reactions in virtually the same situations…but that is no matter. It will be my era soon, and then I can get rid of love entirely…yes, the Failure will be denied…but enough of that for now. There are others who must have a perchance to dream…heh heh heh heh heh."

The figure tapped a few buttons again, and the 3-D image before him changed again, switching back to another sleeping couple it had been on before.

"My last one proved to be a disappointment…so I'll make it up with this one. If I don't leave this girl babbling in terror and questioning her sanity…then I'll just have to make the next one even worse! HA HA HA HA HA!"

__

It will warp peace into anarchy…and innocence into insanity…and life into terrible death…

****

ATROCITIES


	5. Envy

**__**

Seven Deadly Sins: Envy
    
    Mirror, mirror on the wall, how could you be so cruel to me, after all the attention I've languished on you?

I was always the prettiest. Daddy said so. He said I was the loveliest girl in the world. From my childhood when he would always sing to me that mocking bird rhyme, to adulthood when he would digitize those pictures and put them on his official internet site. I was always the pretty girl. I was always to be the pretty girl.

Oh mirror, how could you be so cruel?

I thought nothing could rival my beauty. Not when I cut my hair so I could fight better. Not when my face was damaged when I fought, although I minimized that risk whenever I could. And Gohan always wondered why I kept wearing a helmet when he had long forsaken it for his sunglasses and bandanna. I was always the most beautiful girl, even when I was pregnant with _her._

Her. That thief who calls herself my daughter. It all changed when she came along. It was slow, but I saw it. My radiance began to fade, and as she grew it began to show up on her. She might be a tomboy, but males are beginning to see it. Take her out of her shirt and pants, stick a dress on her, throw on some makeup, and she could put supermodels to shame.

Why, mirror, why? What crime did I commit against you?

You, sitting there so silent and smug! You're mocking me! You're doing it by showing me that my raidiance is slowly being robbed from me! DAMN YOU! I WON'T TAKE IT! I'LL DESTROY YOU!

…………….Pain. It brings many things, but it has brought something to me: clarity. I see now, just as I see the mirror shards on the floor and the blood running from my knuckles. She's not my daughter. She's a parasite that has infected me and is stealing my beauty! She stole some of my flesh and used my body to grow into her own form, doing it in a guise of the product of Gohan's and my love! And even apart from me she is slowly taking my magnificence!

I can't allow this. Thank you mirror. Even in your destruction you provided me with an answer.

I must destroy her.

She is slowly ripping my beauty from me. I have to rip it back!

I will be the loveliest again.

"Hello?" Pan said to the air as she walked into her house. "Mom? Dad? Is anyone home? Hello? Guess not…"

Pan slowly walked down the hallway into the kitchen, shrugging off her jacket and reaching into the fridge for an apple. She's been in the house alone before, but something was off this time. It was if the emptiness this time was trying to hide something, something wrong.

Pan slowly took a bite of the apple, contemplating the stillness. Chewing the apple, she left the kitchen and started heading up the stairs, contemplating the silence and the wrong feeling she was getting from it.

Then she shook her head. She was being silly, and paranoid at that. There was nothing wrong. Maybe her grandfather had hit her too hard when they had been sparring.

Those thoughts lasted a few seconds until she opened the door to her room and saw her mother sitting on the chair in the middle of the room. Pan stopped dead, her arm, which had been raising to take another bite out of the apple, slowly lowering back to her side.

"Mom, is that you?"

Videl didn't answer. Instead, she sat there, unmoving, looking at her daughter.

"Mom…what's wrong? Why are you here? What's wrong?" Pan said, unease stirring in her again.

Then Videl spoke, and as she did she leaned forward and Pan could finally see her eyes clearly. Eyes that were blazing with hate.

"YOU!"

And then Videl was leaping out the chair towards Pan. Pan stood, rooted on the spot in surprise. The apple, the lone bite taken from it, fell from her fingers, landing on the soft white carpet under her feet, as Videl drew her arm from behind her. Light glinted on the giant knife in her hand.

"GIVE ME MY BEAUTY BACK!"

Pan's scream was abruptly cut off, and then red gushed downward, staining the carpet and drenching the apple's red skin with a far deeper crimson red.

"I'm home! Anyone here?" Gohan said as he came in the door. Setting down his briefcase, he looked around to see if anyone was coming to greet him, and was slightly disappointed when no one did. He missed the days when he had been the center of Pan's life and every day he walked in the door had brought cries of "Daddy Daddy Daddy!". But every little girl had to grow up sometime.

"Is anyone here? Hello?" Gohan said, as he climbed up the stairs so he could take some papers out of his briefcase and leave them next to his bed to look at later.

But as he passed by Pan's door, he heard a slight noise. That wasn't enough to disturb him, but the noise struck him as odd, and coming from his daughter's room, that gave him pause.

"Pan?" Gohan said, knocking on the door, and watched as the door, which had been open, ever so slightly, reacted to the pressure Gohan had put on it and slowly swung open.

Gohan looked into the room in confusion. The room was dimly lit, so all Gohan could make out in the room was the strange moving shape on the floor.

"Pan?" Gohan said, reaching over and flicking the light switch next to the door.

The first thing Gohan saw was all the blood. It seemed to be everywhere, all over the floor, turning Pan's beautiful room into an abbatoir.

The next thing Gohan saw was his daughter's legs and another female's back, obscuring his few from the top of his daughter. As Gohan's eyes widened in shock, the female figure, which had been rocking back and forth while the arms moved as if they were finishing something when he had first seen it, slowly turned around.

"Husband." Videl crooned, and Gohan's briefcase fell from fingers frozen with shock as Videl held up Pan's face, sliced from her skull by the bloody butcher knife Videl held in her other hand. Pan's head, horribly mutilated, fell from Videl's lap and continued to leak blood onto the floor.

"She tried to steal my beauty, but I took it back." Videl said, holding up the mask of bloody skin that had once been Pan's face, as Gohan's own face filled with horror. "Now it's mine again. Mine mine mine mine mine mine mineminemineminemineminemine…"

"IIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Videl screamed as she sat up in her bed. Gohan's eyes jerked open at the shrill pieceing cry of terror and regret, and he sat up, nearly leaping out of bed in the process.

"Videl…Videl? What's wrong?" Gohan said, immediately turning to his hysterical wife. Before he could say anything else though, his wife collapsed into his arms, weeping with terror.

"Oh Gohan…dream…terrible dream…no, I'm not that vain…I could never be so jealous…not of my own…" Videl managed to sob out, before she began to babble to herself, which collasped in more cries of terror. Dread flashed back to Gohan as he remembered the nightmare he had had earlier, how deeply it had scared him.

"Shhhhhhhhh…it's ok…it was a dream…dreams can't hurt you…"Gohan said, even though he was sure that if a polygraph had been hooked up to him it would have started ringing off the hook. "It was just a nightmare…I'm here now…"

Then the door swung open, and Pan practically tumbled into the room, so great was her hurry to get in.

"What happened? Mom! Mom, what's wrong? Dad, what's going on? MOM!" Pan said, as Videl took one look at her daughter and began crying again. Neither Gohan nor Pan could know of what was going on in Videl's mind, of the memories that were flooding back of beauty contests and pageants, and of memories of a mindset that she would win, by any means necessary.

"Pan…oh…I'm sorry…I would never…never…!" Videl sobbed, and then her words were again swallowed by sobs.

"Mom? Oh Mom…" Pan said, heading over to the bed and trying to comfort her mother. "What happened, Dad?"

"She had a nightmare, sweetie. I'm sure she'll elaborate when she's calmed down…" Gohan said, rocking his wife. But inside his mind, his thoughts were furiously racing.

__

No normal nightmare could cause such a reaction…was it like the one I had earlier, one that seemed to strike me with one of my weaknesses, and do so with a picture so vivid it seemed real? But if that is so…how?

The figure chuckled. He had gotten his desired reaction. The woman known as Videl would definitely need some therapy later in life…if she had a later in life.

"Well, all fun must come to an end. Onward ho." The figure chuckled, reaching down. In that second, a gleam of moonlight pierced the dark clouds that shrouded the night sky where the figure was, flowed through a window, and reflected off the metal fingers the figure used to push the combinations of buttons that would take him to his next target.

Or so he thought.

"What? Blast, must have pushed the wrong button…" the figure cursed, his good mood dimming slightly. He did not like it when he made mistakes, even the slightest ones. After how far he had ascended from the human race he was born into, he should not still be able to make mistakes like them. It was a shining example of how wretched the human race was to him.

Then there was a slight beeping from the figure's panel. The figure turned eyes glittering with cruelty on it.

"What's this? My accidental scan has found something on the Videl woman…what could it be to warrant my attention…?"

The figure tapped a few more keys, and across the hologram a few readings scrolled before some words came up above Videl. The figure read them and grinned suddenly, a grin full of delighted malice.

"Well well well, I believe I have found one of my Omega Triggers! Why didn't I think of scanning these women before…I could kill two birds with one stone…I will have to look into this development." The figure said, looking at Videl with interest. "Well, young lady, it appears your pathetic and meaningless existence will find a great cause! You should be honoured…but of course you won't be. But that means little to me."

The figure smirked evily again and tapped a few more keys.

"One Omega Trigger found…I did so want for this to involve the Failure in this somehow, but this is simply too convient to pass up. But seeing how close the Failure got to these people…it might just have the desired effect…I will seach for the other needed Omega Trigger later. For now, I shall continue my fun…who shall be next?"

The figure tapped a few more keys, and his cameras snapped onto another sleeping person. The figure grinned evily again.

"Perfect."

__

The heavens will cry…the stars will weep…and the earth will bleed anew…

****

ATROCITIES


	6. Greed

**__**

Seven Deadly Sins: Greed

Dear Diary,

I never was the teacher's pet before. It's actually kind of nice, even at this stuffy private school. Doesn't Mom listen to me how much I hate it here? Sigh, well maybe eventually Dad will get through to her, convince her that I don't need to be a lady. That's what I hate most of all about this school. Walk this way with a gentleman! Hold your fork this way! Next thing I know they'll be telling us something along the lines that "what a man must do on your wedding night is terrible, but brace yourself and think of your country and pray that he is quick". Ha! The Victorian Era was and is a scourge on women and their rights, and if they try to inflict those kind of ideals on me I'm going to show them my kind of ideals, 21st Century Riot Grrl Style!

Ok, enough negativity. I suppose these would be nice things to do for my true love…although I doubt they would be the kind of men who would go for that. I guess Daddy's had an effect on me more then Mom would care to admit, but he hasn't completely warped my mind to his way of thinking yet. Ah, if only I could find someone who is a warrior and a gentleman! The only two I know are too old for me anyway, and they've married others. I guess I'll just have to keep looking…good things come to those who wait, after all.

At least this school has a good education system. I hope that's the real reason Mom sent me here, not so I could learn to "be a lady". I'd rather be a woman…hmmm, perhaps Mom knew that? Maybe this is some scheme she and Dad cooked up to see how fiercely I would cling to my ideals…no actually that sounds more like something Dad would think up…except that if he thought it up I have a feeling it would involve a lot more pummeling of "weak, helpless pathetic oppo…", ok, now I'm thinking in circles. Back on topic. I think I'm becoming the teacher's pet, or the pet of one anyway. Her name is Mrs. Bathori. Isn't that an unusual name? She teaches languages and some art classes, which is good for me beause one of my difficulties is in languages. Ironic, huh? You would think she would be fond of me because I excelled in her class, not because I'm struggling in it. Oh, I try, but different languages seem just so, well, different! It's so hard to use them due to all these new rules and…well, I suppose practice does make perfect. If Mrs. Bathori thought I was hopeless, she wouldn't have agreed to tutor me tonight, would she? Which reminds me, I have to get ready! Talk to you later, diary!

Bra
    
     Bra Briefs closed her diary and went to get dressed in her clothes, grateful that her teacher said she could wear normal clothes instead of the stuffy uniform the school made all the girls wear. Fifteen minutes later she was knocking on the door to her classroom.

"Come in."

"Hello Mrs. Bathori!" Bra said cheerily, trying to put on a happy face, even though the thought of spending two hours studying languages, even with her favorite teacher, was kind of a drag.

Her teacher, Mrs. Bathori, looked up from her mirror and put on a small smile as the lovely young teen girl walked into her classroom, although she was certainly not a hideous menace. While no supermodel, she had a kind of mature beauty around her that drove certain males wild.

Bra paused in the doorway, noticing all the various products scattered on her teacher's desk. Every single kind of cosmetics for women seemed to be there, from lipstick to mascara. Mrs. Bathori followed her student's eyes, and then quickly put on an embarrassed smile and swept all the products and items on her table into a nearby bag.

"Sorry…I was just doing some catagorizing."

"Oh, I see…but you don't look like the kind of person who would need to use a lot of makeup, Mrs. Bathori." Bra said as she sat at the chair that had been positioned in front of the teacher's desk. The teahcer smiled again.

"Call me Elizabeth, dear. And when you get to my age, you find that you need these chemicals far more...or else one day you're face is as brillant as the sun and the next as bleak as the moon."

"Oh don't be so dramatic! You can't be that old Mrs…her, Elizabeth….er, how old are you?"

Elizabeth mock-frowned at Bra.

"You know it's not proper to ask a lady her age…"

"Oh screw that! The era of the lady is over! We're women! We're no tools and props of men, we're their equals, and we'll damn sure let them know it!" Bra said in a sudden rush. Just as suddenly, dread seized over her at her outburst.

"Oh Mrs…"

"Oh no need to apologize Bra. You're young, and that is the view of your generation. I suppose I could never understand it, me being a positively ancient forty-eight years old and all…" Elizabeth chuckled. Bra gaped, but only a tiny bit.

"You're nearly fifty? Wow! You look more like you're in your early thirties!"

"Thank you Bra, but it's true. Now you know why I need all those products…and other means…" Elizabeth trailed off. Bra cocked her head, an inquisitive look on her face.

"What, Mrs…Elizabeth?"

"Oh nothing Bra. Just me thinking out loud. Let's get to studying. I brought some drinks, would you like a soda or something?"

"Sure, whatcha got?"

"Oh, just some generic old stuff…it tastes the same as the brand names to me and it's cheaper." Elizabeth said, pulling out a bottle of cola. Bra took it gratefully and began to chug it down. Her school didn't exactly think high;y of such low-nutrient, high-caffiene beverages.

"Ah….that hit the spot…" Bra said, and then grimaced.

"What's wrong?" Elizabeth said, concern in her eyes.

"Ugh…has this drink been sitting out in the sun…it's got a horrible aftertaste…" Bra said. Then her vision began to blur. Panic blossumed in her chest, but it was only a brief flare before a deepening numbness settled over it and extinguished it.

"Mrs…" Bra said, her voice slow and slurred. "There's some…ting…wrong…the drinks…"

Then the darkness began to close in, and as Bra tumbled into it, the last thing she saw was Mrs. Bathori, close and yet so far away, looking down at her.

"I know, darling." She said.

Then her face CHANGED, as a smile of pure desire flowed onto her face as her eyes seemingly darkened and began to blaze a lust that was not sexual, but something else, something far more terrible.

"I know all too well."

And then the darkness consumed Bra completely, as she…

…Tried to sit up with a gasp, only to have the gasp squashed suddenly as something wrapped around her neck and cut it off. Falling back down the short distance she had managed to make, she craned her head and saw she was lying on a stone platform. No, not just lying. Tied to it. 

Nightmarish visions of David Solomus came flooding back into her mind, and she began tostruggle with all her might.

Then she noticed the smell, and she gagged. The room reeked of rot and decay, the thick wet odor filling her nostrils and making her watch to vomit.

"Where am I?' Bra thought out loud.

"Why, you're in my private beauty parlor, Bra dear."

And then Elizabeth Bathori was suddenly in her vision, smiling, a terrible smile. In her right mind, Bra finally recognized the desire reflected in the teacher's face. It was a smile of greed.

"What are you doing? Let me go! NOW!" Bra screamed as her struggles increased. But the straps held her firm. Bra goggled. Her father had instructed her in the arts of fighting after the terrible Agony holocaust, and even more so after the David Solomus trial. She was strong enough to lift a truck over her head. The straps that bound her didn't feel like metal, so why could't she break them.

"Oh no. I can't do that. I need you. Or more specifically, I need a certain part of you."

Bra listened half heartedly, but most of her mind was focussed on her struggle. Try to break the straps that held her down via her throat, she contorted her head, twisted it as far to the side as she could.

And screamed.

Lying in a heap in the corner were a pile of rotten bodies. Flies and various other insects buzzed on the black putrescent flesh. But despite the decayed condition of the pile of corpses, Bra could tell one thing. There were all girls. Young girls.

"I was so lovely when I was your age, but as I grew up, I noticed that my looks began to fade. I tried everything, but nothing seemed to stop it. But then I found the key, back in the days when schools allowed canings. I'm afraid I caned one girl too hard, so hard I splashed blood on my face. Imagine my surprise that when I washed it off, and found my beauty had increased!"

"But…but…no…they didn't allow canings…they banned corporal punishment decades ago!" Bra gasped.

"Oh yes. I said I was forty-eight, didn't I? I sort of left out a digit, a two."

The sheer realization that her teacher either believed she was really two hundred and forty eight years old, or by some horrid miracle, actually WAS hit Bra like a bullet.

"No…"

"Oh yes. And since then, I've used you. You will give me immortality, an immortality of beauty, your virgin's blood. You don't want to be a lady Bra, so you will be used to make sure a true lady never dies!"

Bra's eyes filled with sick horror, and then she saw two other things.

One was the tub near the bodies, covered with a continuous dark red/brown stain. It was large enough to hold a person…large enough to be a bathtub of sorts.

And the second was the large, curved scythe-like blade that Elizabeth was drawn from behind her back, the blade she was rising to make the first cut.

"It is what I deserve!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO………………"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Bra screamed as she sat up, her heart racing at two miles a minute.

And then a second later her door exploded off the hinges as Vegeta stormed into the room, torn out of sleep by his daughter's cry of pure terror.

"BRA! Bra, honey, what's wrong? What's wrong?" Vegeta said, taking his weeping daughter into his arms and holding her tight. Her shudders of fear sent burning sparks of rage racing through him, and his eyes flashed green.

"Bad dream…terrible…daddy…!" Bra said, holding her father as tight as she could. The doorway in the hall was suddenly filled with more people, as Bulma, Trunks, Goten, and Marron crowded into the room.

"Shhhhhhh…shhh…it's ok sweetie…" Bulma cooed as she joined her husband in trying to comfort her daughter. Trunks stood where he was, and then looked at Goten. The look in Goten's eyes told Trunks he had arrived at the exact same conclusion.

"She had a nightmare too. One so vivid and terrible…that she was reduced to this. That settles it Goten. We need to know what's going on. Now."

The figure laughed at the group.

"Oh young one, you are about as incapable as realizing the truth as your father is of realizing once and for all that your best friend's father will always be stronger then him!" he chuckled.

Then a beeping suddenly started coming from his panel, and the figure looked down at it.

"Well well…can it be?" the figure said, and then tapped a few buttons. A white outline suddenly formed around Marron's 3-D image that the figure was watching and readings began to appear above and around her, until a single word appeared above her head. The figure grinned again.

"My genius shows itself again. I kept my scanners on alert, and they have found me the other Trigger. My plan is falling into place all by it's own. Soon, it will be time. You should be honoured girl. You and the Videl woman will be the beginning of a new empire beyond comprehension, a reign by a new force of creation itself!"

Then another beeping sounded on the panel, and the figure looked at in annoyance.

"I do hate it when people interrupt…" the figure said with some annoyance, and pushed a few buttons on his panel. The image of the people in Bra's room trying to comfort the teenager vanished, and was replace by a lone man's head. The man had hair cut close to his skull, a blonde so light it was almost white. He had a handsome face that projected a bad-boy attitude, but he also exuded an aura of menace and savagery.

"Ah, William. What can I do for you?" the figure asked.

"For starters, mate, you can tell me when we're going to leave!" the newly named William said with a heavy accent. "I've been sitting around for hours. I want some action!"

The figure smirked.

"Do not worry William. The Gateway is almost complete. Soon we will be on our way to the world which will grant us all power beyond imagining…enough power to do whatever you wish…without anyone being able to oppose you."

"Yeah, well your bitches are saying soon as well, and I'm sick of it! I don't care how strong you say these warriors are, I want a piece of them! Or anyone! What good is a newly returned desire to kill if I can't use it?" William said, his voice and words clear he was not saitisfied with the figure's answer.

"Be calm William. Your desire to destroy will soon have plenty of oppourtunity to gorge itself. Be patient. Your allies are."

William cocked his head.

"You know how I feel about them, mate. I don't trust them, especially that hybrid who already thinks he's a god."

"And they probably feel the same about you, William. But you, they, and I are more equal then you think. We were once all human, but we rose above the frailties and imperfections and overall pathetic nature that the human species is! And soon…we will be ever more so, William. I promise."

"Ok. But one last thing. Stop calling me William! My name is S…"

The figure pressed a button, and the image of the man the figure had called William vanished.

"It doesn't matter what your name is, William." The figure chuckled, and pressed a few more buttons.

Vegeta sat at the living room table, head in his hands as he tried to make sense of it. After hours of comforting his daughter and assuring her there was no crazy woman out to get her because she had a murderous greed to be beautiful, Bra had finally fallen asleep again from pure exhaustion. Vegeta had thought he could get some more sleep, but his son has insisted on speaking with him then. A few hours later, with the light of day starting to peak over the horizon, Vegeta sat there. He had excused himself from the discussion that was still continuing in the kitchen on what these nightmares might mean, and was now doing some ow his own private thinking, even as his own exhaustion began to weight down on him.

__

My son and daughter suffer these dreams...dreams so terrible, so real that it affected them to the degree that it did…how could dreams do that? And not just my childen…Kakarott's spawn suffered one as well? Is it possible for something like this to happen to three people in one night…and if not…what…so tired…could it…I'll just lower my head and rest my eyes a bit…mean…………….

The figure smiled at the now sleeping saiya-jin prince.

"I've saved the best for last, Vegeta. You wonder how these nightmares could be so horrid. I've got my greatest one ready for you…and when it's over, we'll see if you managed to hang onto your sanity like all the others. For all your strength, you are weak in mind…far weaker then you think your rival Goku is…and soon, you'll know just how terrible strength is! HA HA HA HA HA!"

__

A psychotic mastermind…a ruined soul hell bent on revenge…a personification of vengeance…vs a beyond menacing force…and the final battle for redemption is about to begin…

****

ATROCITIES


	7. Pride

**__**

Seven Deadly Sins: Pride

The angry waves lashed the bottom of the cliff face, tearing away clods of dirt and hunks of rock. The wind, wild and frenzied, added to the destruction of the rock face that had stood for countless aeons. Dark clowds loomed overhead, the only spector to the lone figure on the cliff.

Thunder rumbled, and lighting danced from the crowd as the figure stood, hands cletched so tightly he risked breaking his own fingers. His muscles were as taunt as a crossbow's bowstring, every single one of them tightened up to the point that they risked the possibility of cramping up and causing the figure incredible pain. But the figure didn't care, and if anyone could have somehow overcome the gigantic waves of force that were coming off the man, they could have seen it in his eyes. The determination in them was an inferno of desire, unrelenting, unwavering, unstoppable.

Vegeta felt the power coursing through him, felt it burning within his organs, his veins, his very being. And he knew that the moment he had been waiting for his entire life had arrived.

__

Risk total destruction…

NO…!

WILL NOT DENY MYSELF…

….THE POWER!

IT…IS…MY…**DESTINY!**

Then Vegeta lifted up his head and screamed, a scream of incredible pain and torment, and yet one of total and utter exileration as a dozen bolts of black and gold lighting shot from the dark clouds above and enveloped him, carressing his body like a lover, as the power coursed through him, tore through him, enveloped itself in every fibre of his being. The cliff face below him crumbled into dust from the force coming off of his, and before the ocean could rush in to fill the void that Vegeta's transformation was wrecking apon the earth, the water itself was blown back, billions of tons of liquid evaporating in seconds as the crator continued to grow beneath the screaming saiya-jin.

Then everything was filled with light, and the world shook.

And then…there was silence. Nothing broke the quiet. Not even the gurgle of water rushing in to fill the hole beneath Vegeta, because there was no water left. It was gone, altered into its gaseous state by Vegeta's might.

Panting and gasping, Vegeta slowly opened his eyes. He blinked.

And then he raised his hands, staring at them, in wonder and disbelief. He blinked, slowly again.

"I did…it. I did it."

Vegeta's eyes turned to the rest of his body, looking at the fur that now resided on his arms, his chest, and around his tail. But it wasn't red fur, it was a brillant gold. And on his head, Vegeta's black hair whispered as a slight breeze flowed through the magnificent black mane, the ebony locks that now grew all the way down to his feet.

Vegeta looked apon his new body in amazement.

"I did it…I thought it was impossible…that it would destroy me…BUT I HAVE DONE IT! I HAVE ACHIEVED THE ULTIMATE PEAK A SAIYA-JIN CAN ACHIEVE! I HAVE ACHIEVED SUPER SAIYA-JIN LEVEL 5!"

Vegeta cletched his fists, calling apon his new power, feeling it flow through him and watching the charred rock beneath him crumple even more from the waves of force it gave off.

"At long last, I have the power that I dserve as the prince, the king of the saiya-jin race! Ultimate power is mine! I have become the true Legendary Super Saiya-jin!"

"Then why don't you prove it?"

Vegeta whirled around, his hair swirling around him, and his eyes locked on the man who had spoken to him. His eyes danced with glee, and his mouth curved up in an arrogant smirk.

"Kakarott. It is good that you came to me. I was going to go hunt you down instead."

"You gave off so much power, I couldn't resist coming. " Goku said, his arms crossed and his eyes locked into an expression of deadly seriousness. Vegeta's smirk grew even more arrogant, if such a thing is possible.

"Well Kakarott, the day has finally dawned. At long last I have surpassed you. I never doubted it for a second, that I, the prince, could surpass a third-class baka like you! I am at the highest level a saiya-jin can achieve, the fifth level of the super saiya-jin state! I am the only one to achieve that level, and with it, I shall defeat you and prove my supremcy, once at for all!"

"You have tried for years, Vegeta. What makes you think you can do it now?" Goku said calmly.

And then he screamed as red energy erupted out of thin air and consumed Goku, and when it abated, he stood in SSJ4 state. But his figure and appareance was dwarfed by the sheer magnifence that Vegeta presented.

"To the final battle Kakarott! The one I have waited for for decades! THE ONE THAT WILL PROVE THAT I AM THE BEST!" Vegeta screamed, and zapped forward.

Goku couldn't even react, as Vegeta hit him so hard his head nearly flew off. He zapped backwards so quickly the air lit on fire, nearly lighting him on fire as well.

Stopping, Goku held his aching jaw and looked with angry eyes at Vegeta, who floated there, tail lashing the air as he smirked again, radiating arrogance.

"Take your best shot."

Snarling, Goku thrust his hands to the side and a massive ball of blue brilliance appeared between his fingers, pouring forth beams of destructive power.

"KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Goku scramed, before he threw a ki blast the size of a building at Vegeta. The blast enveloped him and he vanished in a explosion beyond comprehension. The earth quaked beneath the power.

Panting, Goku watched as the smoke cleared.

Vegeta floated there, not a hair out of place. He hadn't even bothered to block.

"Was that your best?" he smirked.

Goku growled and zapped forward, pummeling Vegeta's face with punches. Again, Vegeta didn't bother to block, or even react, as Goku rained blows against his face and body. Goku didn't stop, burning himself out until his blows became slower and slower, and until he could barely float, gasping for air. He hadn't done anything to Vegeta at all.

"Pathetic." Vegeta said, and then brought his fist forward into Goku's chest. Goku face contorted in pain, and he let out a gasp of pure agony before blood burst from his mouth, splattering on Vegeta's face. Vegeta continued his attack with a knee to Goku's midsection, and the saiya-jin doubled over with a whiny cry that was as unlike him as it was for Vegeta to be humble.

"At last you are doing the right thing and bowing to me." Vegeta said, and lacing his fists together, he brought them down on Goku's back, sending the SSJ4 saiya-jin into the ground like a rag doll. The impact created a huge crator as the sheer force of Goku's landing blasted rock aside.

Vegeta smiled and brought up his hands, and the air began to hum and the sing with power as a golden and black battle aura exploded around him. Goku lay limply at the bottom of the crator, not moving and seemingly unable to.

"This should have been done a long time ago. It may take a while, but fate always comes through." Vegeta said, and then brought his hands together at the wrists and aimed them at Goku.

"FINAL FLASH!"

The gigantic bolt of energy exploded from Vegeta's hands and blasted at Goku, and then every one of Vegeta's senses was filled and overwhelmed with light as a roar loud enough to swallow the world blasted through his ears, nearly deafening him. He shook his head and cough slightly at the mammoth dust cloud that enveloped him. Waving his hand, he quickly blew it away and looked down.

The crator seemed to have no end, stretching off into the distance seemingly forever. Vegeta's eyes scanned the ground for a long time, and then a surge of pure joy filled him. He couldn't see or sense Goku anywhere.

"I've done it! I've done it! I have finally defeated Kakarott in mortal combat! At long last my supremacy is decided!" Vegeta crowed to the air. Sucking in a breath of air, Vegeta slowly floated down to the ground.

"Well Kakarott, I must admit you were the most worthy and greatest foe I have ever had. But all good things must come to an end. But for your gift to me in being a great rival, I will show mercy on you and your family. The Namekian dragon balls have not revived you yet, I will go there and return you to life. In the end, it will be more saitisfying to see you and have you know that every time you look at me that you lost when it was all on the line."

Nodding his head, Vegeta levitated back up into the air and flew off into the distance, heading home. His main goal in life was finally acomplished. Now he could finally be at peace with himself and spend the rest of his life with his family. Victory and glory on the battlefield was one thing, but if the Agony incident had taught him anything, it was that family could be a thousand times more rewarding.

Vegeta began to get an inkling that something was wrong when he glanced down and noticed that all the trees in the forest below him had been uprooted. His curiosity was piqued, and Vegeta flew down to investigate. With Kakarott finally defeated, he would need something to fill his remaining years.

"Odd…it's like they were all knocked down by an incredible force…but I'm at least a thousand miles from the site of my battle…how could they…could it…?" Vegeta said, before he launched himself back into the air, trying to figure it out.

Then his sense of something being wrong deepened as he came to a small town and saw that every building in it was destroyed, as if something had knocked it over like they were matchsticks. His disturbed feeling growing, Vegeta flew down to investiagate again.

And found an abbatoir. The streets were covered with dead bodies. Men, women, children, of all ages and kinds were scattered everywhere. It was as if the city had been hit by an atomic bomb that gave off no heat or radiation, for all the bodies Vegeta found had been utterly pulverized, splattered everywhere, causing the streets to run with rivers of gore. The few bodies Vegeta had managed to find were virtually sacks of liquid, everything within them pounded to mush with their skin barely keeping it from spilling out and adding to the slaughterhouse the town had become.

Terrible fear seized Vegeta, and he blasted back into the air flew towards the city where Capsole Corp resided, his worries on how to tell his family that he had killed Goku vanishing in an uncontrollable surge of terror. The terror only grew as he passed over other towns and areas. Although he zapped by them in seconds, he could see that everything was destroyed, annihalated. Each sight pushed him to fly faster.

And then he was home, and his heart sank in a black pool of despair.

"No…." Vegeta croaked, as he looked at the ruin of his house. Everything was destroyed, even Bra's little treehouse she had built when she was young. Despair gave way to panic, and Vegeta leviatted back up and flew around the house in a slow circle, looking, desperately looking, and hoping with even more desperation.

Then he saw them.

Vegeta stopped dead in mid-air, and then as if his powers of flight had suddenly been robbed from him, he fell to the ground and collasped on his knees, looking with sheer horror at the sight of his family laying there. They had been having a picnic. Now they would never be doing anything again.

"No….no….." Vegeta said in a more tearful and mournful tone each time as tears bubbled at the corners of his eyes. "No…what did this…what did this…"

"You did."

Vegeta whirled again, getting to his feet in mid-turn, and his eyes widened in sheer surprise.

"Kakarott?"

"Indeed, my prince." Said Goku, as he stood some distance away, arms again crossed. There was no emotion in his eyes. Vegeta was torn between grief for his family, ripped from him again, and fury and desperation that what Goku had said was not true.

"What…how did you…how did I…?"

"How did I survive? By knowing you, Vegeta. By knowing just how you acted, how you felt, and what you desired more then anything." Goku said, looking apon the grief and horror-wracked saiya-jin. His magnifence was gone, replaced by a more vunerable look then he had ever had before.

Vegeta stared, trying to form words.

"What?"

"I knew you, my "liege". I knew that you would never be saitisfied with the power you had. You would never be content with knowing you were second best. You had to keep going. You had to keep reaching for new heights. And I knew that eventually you would cross the line that even I dared not to cross. You see, I was on the verge of what you are now, once. I never stopped training. I could have reached Super Saiya-jin Level Five as well. But as I looked apon it, I understood, and drew back. But I knew you would not. Your ability to understand the consequences would never be able to overcome your desire to be the greatest. And that is what has happened, Vegeta. When you hit the level you are at, the power you gave off…it was simply too much for the planet to bear. You emitted a wave of invisible force that swept across the planet and destroyed everything in its path. Every living creature…every man-made structure…everything was destroyed. I couldn't even protect my own family. In becoming supreme, you murdered this world, Vegeta. Even your own family."

The sheer realization of what his acension had done began to wash over Vegeta, and he fell to his knees, his hands held helplessly out in front of him.

"But…how did you…?"

"Survive? As I said, I knew. I knew this was inevitable. So I gathered the Dragon Balls, and I made two wishes of Shen Long. One was for the immortality you once craved, Vegeta. I can't be killed. Not by you. Not by anything. Thus I survived your ascent, and your attack. And the second was for a barrier to be created around this planet, a barrier that serves one purpose. To keep you locked on this dead planet, so you can't leave and cause Armageddon to other worlds. So you can't try to become a dictator of life. It will exist as long as you live, Vegeta. Even with your power, you cannot break it. It will only disappear when you die, and die you shall, Vegeta. You can't wish for immortality like I did. You destroyed Dende and the Dragon Balls along with everyone else, Vegeta. You are imprisoned here. Only I remain on this planet. Once you are dead…I will be free…but until then…I will watch over you until you are dead."

"No…no….NO…" Vegeta agonized, cletching his hair with his hands. Goku's face broke out in a cruel smirk, and Vegeta realized with horror that it was the same look he had worn many times.

"But look on the bright side Vegeta. You may have destroyed everything you cared about, may have left yourself to spend the rest of your life with your worst enemy…but you have achieved your greatest goal! You have become mightier then I, the true Legendary Super Saiya-jin! Tell me, Vegeta, is your saiya-jin pride finally sated?"

As the true depths of the cost of his desires finally sank into Vegeta, he screamed to the heavens.

"NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!"

Trunks was never sure what happened. He had been in the middle of a discussion with his mother and best friend with his last word being "sprinkler" when he felt a sudden abrupt rise in his father's ki.

Then a horrified scream emitted from from the living room where his father had dozed off, made even more terrible by the fact that there were _very_ few things that could horrify Vegeta. Trunks leapt to his feet along with his mother and best friend, already knowing what had happened. His chair banged to the ground and he charged into the living room.

Vegeta was on his feet, ki crackling on his hands. He had destroyed the living room table in aoutburst of sheer horror, but Trunks could see he was finally calming down. 

As Vegeta's eyes focussed on the group of three people, the ki faded. Wordlessly, he suddenly reached forward and enveloped his son in a powerful hug of relief. Trunks was expected it, but he wasn't expecting how tight it would be.

"Ah, father! You're choking me!" Trunks gasped. Vegeta let his son go and hugged his wife, abet with more care.

"A nightmare?" Goten asked.

Vegeta nodded.

"That was in relief and my way of saying sorry that I underestimated just how bad those dreams were. Now I know, and don't expect me to hug you you baka!" Vegeta added at the end of his sentence, looking at Goten.

"Didn't expect it anyway." Goten said with a slight smirk.

"You were right, Trunks. It was like I was there…and it was like someone was dregging up a deep desire of mine and using it on me…to…"

Then Vegeta's hand suddenly snapped up and apparently seized the air next to his shoulder. The sudden abrupt movement startled the three people near Vegeta, whose face had contorted into an expression of rage and saitisfaction.

"Got you!" Vegeta said, as he brought his other hand and cletched it around the bottom of his fist. Trunks felt his father's ki rise slightly.

"Got you…got what, Vegeta?" Bulam asked, leaning forward to try and look.

"Along with my power, my senses have also been raised considerably from all my training. I felt this little bugger remove itself from my ear, it was attached it there. It was trying to get away, and it was pretty damn fast, but not fast enough. I just hope I didn't squash the damn thing, it was so small." Vegeta cursed, and then opened his hand as he formed a translucent ki bubble.

"My kami." Bulma said. She could barely see it, but it was there, a tiny dot buzzing around the ki bubble, bouncing off the surface as it tried to get away.

"What is it?" Goten said, leaning forward to try and get a good look at the dot, which would be impossible unless he had a microscope.

"I don't know, so let's…" Vegeta began, and then he cursed as he and the group suddenly saw the dot vanish.

"What happened?" Trunks said as Vegeta dispelled the ki bubble.

"My ears are better then yours, and even I could barely hear it. It disentigrated, on it's own power."

"Like a self-destruct mechanism…" Goten said, and then looked up as Marron joined him. Soon, Bra also joined the group, and explanations were quickly exchanged.

"But if it destroyed itself…that would mean it's mechanical…dear god, could something that complex be so small?" Marron said. Vegeta looked at his wife.

"Bulma, get on the phone and call everyone. I want to see who else had these nightmares. And then I want to get to the bottom of it."

Some time later, the whole Z Gang had gathered at Bulma's house, and sat around on various chairs and couches in a circle. Gohan sat in the head, trying to push away nostolgia. The last time they had all gathered like this, it had been after Agony had been defeated. Gohan did not like to remember those times.

"Ok…Is everyone here?"

"Everyone important." Goten joked. It fell flat, and Goten did his own falling, the kind into silence.

"Ok…from what I know…there have been several nightmares. All were so vivid that they seemed to be real…so real that when you finally woke up, you checked to make sure everyone who appeared in your dream was ok. Now…everyone who has had a nightmare, raise your hand."

The seven who had suffered the dreams did. Off in a corner, Goku watched with a pondering look.

"Ok, we'll start with you, Trunks. Tell me your dream."

Trunks did so. Gohan scribbled some notes.

"Ok, little brother."

"Don't call me that." Goten said, and told Gohan his dream, which caused some chuckles until Goten got to the cannabalism part, which effectively silenced the crowd. Gohan wrote some more notes.

"Videl, sweetie…I know it was bad…" Gohan said.

"It's ok, Gohan. It's just a dream. It can't hurt me any more." Videl said, and told her dream. There were some disturbed looks around the crowd.

"Ok, Bra."

Bra told her dream. More disturbed looks.

"Ok, Krillian. You had one, right?"

"Uh…yeah…" said the former monk, looking uncomfortable and fidgeting in his seat. Next to him, Eighteen also looked uncomfortable.

"Well, what was it…"

"Um…I'd rather not say…it was rather…unpleasent…" Krillian said.

"Well Krillian, I need to compare all the dreams so I can try and find a link…here, why don't you write the dream down and only I'll read it…" Gohan said, passing Krillian another notepad and a pencil. A quick use of ki powers later, Krillian passed back his written description. Gohan read it, his eyebrows raising several times.

"You're right, that is pretty bad." Gohan said. He wrote some generic notes that only he and the couple would understand, and then crumpled up the paper and burned it.

"Ok, then there's my dream…" Gohan said, describing it as he wrote it down. "And finally, Vegeta."

Vegeta told his dream. Gohan scribbled his last notes.

"Ok…speaking on behalf of all of us…all of these dreams involved us either hurting the ones we love or seeing them get hurt…and all of them seem to harp on some hidden flaw, or old desire, or something that we would feel bad about…classic psychological warfare…but it could all be concidence…until Vegeta caught that…thing. Tell me Vegeta, are you SURE it was mechanical?"

"I'm sure baka. I've destroyed things both organic and robot. They make different noises when they're burned. It was mechanical. Trust me." Vegeta said.

"Well…besides that, I can't think of anything…can anyone else?"

There were some suggestions, but Gohan discounted them for lack of evidence. Eventually, there was general silence.

"How about you, Toussan?" Gohan asked his father.

"I can't think of anything Gohan…I didn't have a nightmare…neither did Chi Chi…unless you count that one I had about Agony a few months…but these all happened within hours or minutes of each other, and they were caused."

"What I'd like to know is what kind of sin could we have commited to deserve this…first Agony…then that crazy David…then this…" Chi Chi began, before her son cut her off.

"What did you say Mom?" Gohan said. Chi Chi looked perturbed.

"Uh…I said I wondered why all this tragedy keeps happening to us…what sin did we commit…you know Gohan I thought I raised you better…it's not nice to interrupt your mother…"

But Gohan wasn't paying attention. His eyes had taken on a look of deep thought.

"Guys…I think I see a link…have you ever heard of the seven deadly sins?" Gohan asked the crowd before him.

"Um…I think I have…they're part of that religion called Christianity, I think." Bulma said.

"I don't care where it came from! What is it?" Vegeta half asked, half yelled. Gohan picked up his notes again along with his pencil.

"According to the religion, they're supposedly the worst things a person can do…the worse ways a person can feel, live, etc…now let me see…" Gohan said, looking over his notes.

"Videl…your dream…envy, that's one of the sins. Vegeta…pride. Definitely pride."

"Hey!" Vegeta said.

"Vegeta, I didn't give you the dream…Goten, you were gluttony."

"I'll say."

"Krillian…yours…lust. Definitely lust." Gohan said, causing several of the males to cast suspicious glances at the midget. Krillian gave an embarrassed smile and avoided their eyes.

"Me…sloth…that's another word for laziness…"Gohan explained as he wrote it down. "That leaves Bra and Trunks…and Trunks, from your dream, I will say yours was wrath. That leaves Bra, and that means her sin was greed. It all makes sense. All of you had a dream that reflected one of the seven deadly sins. That's the link."

There was silence. Finally, Goku spoke up.

"But what could it mean…why would someone give us dreams that reflected these seven deadly sins?"

Gohan was silent again, but he finally spoke.

"I can think of just one reason. This sins supposedly reflected something in us…and according to Christianity…to fall to these sins is to damn yourself to hell…and eternal torment."

"Indeed, Gohan, indeed." The figure said as he watched all the Z Fighters. "But you still don't understand the true reason…you never would be able to. Hell is cloest thing you could use to conceive of what is about to happen. But all good things must come to an end. I'll be seeing you soon, Zen Warriors, especially you two, who will be honoured to serve the higher purpose of granting me godhood. Soon. Soon."

The figure pressed one of the few buttons he had not pushed on his panel, and the image vanished. Slowly, the dark room was illuminated with light slowly, revealing the figure.

It was a man, in the midst of transfering from the years called middle age to the years often called the "twilight" of humanity. The figure had dark black hair that was streaked with some grey, dark hair that seemed to lack any oils whatsoever and yet not look ill. The figure also had a beard of the same black, also faintly spreckled with grey and cut close so it was left with a faint goatee. The figure had a short but hooked nose, and thin, colourless lips, and large eyes filled with intelligence and something far more menacing. The figure wore a light blue shirt that was covered by a black coat, a coat of thin cloth that might have been recognized as lab coat had it been white.

The man would have also been seen to be wearing black slacks and loafers, but you could no see his legs. The man sat in a modified wheelchair, leaving only the body above his midsection exposed. The figure had long fingers with closely cut nails, which were attached to arms that were not muscular but also not dilapidated. The rest of his body was concealed in the chair, hiding his legs. The figure would much prefer it that way, for those limbs had detiorated into thin, brittle sticks.

The figure raised his right hand, revealing that three of his fingers on that hand were not organic, but instead a cold, polished metal. He pressed a button in the panel of the wheelchair he had been manipulating for so long, and a small sheet of metal slid shut over it as another one slid back and offered him more buttons. The room he was in consisted of a lone window that showed the dark, stormy night as best it could, and a lone door that stood behind the man. In front of him were several computer banks, which had been, until recently, occupied with showing the man the effects of his dreams on the Z Fighters. Now they sat silent, waiting to be used again. The man liked it that way. He had built them, and it existed only to serve him.

The man was about to press some of the buttons on his new panel when a beeping sounded from behind him.

"You may enter." He said.

The door slid open, and a young woman walked in. She appeared to be in her early twenties. She had closely cut blonde hair placed in a severe style, and a slim and well-muscled body. She wore a featureless red and black full bodysuit, with simple boots. She was a lovely woman, but she did not smile, or show anything except total and utter obediance.

"Master." The girl said, kneeling and lowering her head. The man in the wheelchair smirked to himself, and pressed a few buttons on his new panel. With a slight whirring noise, the extensions of metal that had kept the metal chair on the ground retracted, leaving the chair floating several inches off the ground. Pressing another button, the figure slowly turned it around to look at the girl.

"Yes, Belinda?" the man asked, his fingers lacing themselves together as he looked apon the young woman, who kept her head bowed, her obediance never faltering.

"The Gateway is finally complete, my lord. We need only a few minutes to charge the power source, and then we will be ready to leave."

"I see. And you are sure that will arrive at the right place?"

"We have checked the cordinates a dozen times over, my lord. We will arrive there, in one piece, ready to carry out our mission."

"Good. Have my…allies been told what I have requested we all do once we have arrived?"

"Yes sir. We were as careful as possible to make sure that they sounded like a group of tasks that needed to be shared mutually…instead of orders. We know how severely you stressed that…but even then there were some…problems."

"What?"

"Natalie is dead. The vampire…he killed her. And the hybrid almost did the same with Nicolle, but it appears he had a cooler head, and held off. Surprising, I thought Ally would be the most likely to die, since she had to inform that…brute…but he was surprisingly eager to do his task."

"Hmmm, unfortunate. But there is little I can do. Is William still refusing to do his task?"

"He claims it is beneath him…but he will do it, if it helps him get what he wants. I guess killing one of my sisters was enough for him to work out his rage."

The man sighed and turned away, his brain engaged in thought.

"Ah William…your mission was given to you because your kind are supposed to be the masters of the night…of the shadows…and yours requires stealth. I was honouring you…but with your mindset…especially after having that chip in your head for so long…well, I suppose it is not set in a way for you to realize that."

"Master, perhaps we SHOULD change his task. He wants something more suited to his tastes? We should give him that distraction mission…see how long he lasts when confronted with one of the warriors of this planet."

"Indeed." The figure chuckled. "But I can't do that. I made my promise to him, I shall keep it…even though he can only think so small to want to kill that woman…what was her name?"

"The Slayer."

"Ah yes. Well, different strokes for different folks…is that all?"

"No sir. My other information is that Trisha has returned from her mission."

The figure turned his head in some surprise.

"She did?"

"Yes sir. She is rather injured though. Do you wish…?"

"Yes, send her in."

Belinda raised herself back to her feet, once again not meeting her master's eyes, and left the room. The man in the wheelchair turned his chair back around to face the door and waited.

Then another woman entered the room. She wore a simular outfit and had her hair cut in a simular style. While also lovely, her face was marred by several cuts, and her arm had apparently been in the midst of being bandaged when she had been called. Her leg appeared to be even more damaged then her arm, but she still kneeled. Her dark brown hair was streaked with dried blood.

"My lord…"

"Well, Trisha, were you successful?"

"Yes my lord. I successfully managed to plant it…she hurt me pretty bad but I did it…the Wildcard is in place…I never want to see that woman again, she's the most monstrous horrible…"

"Ah yes Trisha, that is enough. You kept your silence?"

"Yes my liege, I lied on what caused my injuries. No one knows besides you and I."

"Good." Said the figure.

Then he pressed a button on his panel, and yet another one slid open, this time by his left hand. The noise attracted Trisha's attention, and she looked up.

"My lord?"

Then the figure pressed a button on the new panel, and suddenly a tube extracted itself from the front of his wheel/hoverchair and fired a bolt of blue energy. Trisha screamed as the bolt snaked out and wrapped around her, lifting her off the ground as the stench of burning flesh filled the air.

"MASTER…! WHY…!" Trisha screamed in agony.

"As you said, Trisha, no one knows about the Wildcard except you and I. And that's one too many for me. I'm afraid you have become an inconvience to me. Too bad for you."

"MASTER, NO…AIIIEEEEEYAAAH!" Trisha screamed in torment before her flesh burned off her bones and her skeleton burnt to ash. The door snapped back open and Belinda and another girl, this one much larger then the blonde and with thick slabs of muscle covering both her arms and legs rushed in. Belinda held a small protectile weapon, the amazon held a huge metal weapon that looked like a cross between an axe and a spear.

"My lord…?" said Belinda.

"Trisha failed in her mission. I will not tolerate failure. You know that Belinda, Angela. She should have as well, but she dared to return. Are all your fellow Valkyries ready?" the man in the wheelchair asked the woman known as Belinda. Belinda lowered her eyes.

"Yes master. We have been ready for a long time. Give the order and we will gather and summon your allies, and then we shall go."

"Yes. One last thing. Have you sent the…package…to the Failure?"

"Yes. He should have received it by now."

"Good."

"Master."

The man turned his eyes to the huge amazon woman who had accompanied, and the woman also cast down her green eyes.

"Yes Angela?"

"I must ask…the Failure thinks you are dead. You know that if he hates anyone more then…her…he hates you. Is it truly wise to not only tell him that you are alive, but you have been watching him all this time, and this has allowed you to learn how to travel between dimensions?"

The man's eyes suddenly filled with anger.

"Are you questioning me, Angela?"

"No my lord…I know that whatever you do must have some reason…" the amazon said, her eyes alight with fear.

"Then you should know why I sent that package to the Failure! He was supposed to be my grandest creation, and instead he turned on me, turned on everything I tried to teach him, and in doing so he took my legs! This information I sent him…he will come after me…and I will break him…break him in a way even he can't conceive of. I am sorry Angela, but one thing I tolerate even less then failure is stupidity! You have disappointed me dearly!"

"My lord…forgive me…but the warriors of this world are so immensely strong! The last thing we need is if the Failure comes after us…what if he brings his…"

The man sighed.

"Even now you question me."

Then the figure pressed a button, and yet another panel opened and slid a small thin pistol into the man's hand. Angela's eyes widened in terror as he grabbed the gun.

"NO…!"

Then the man shot the huge woman right between the eyes. As destroyed cerebal tissue, flecks of skull, and blood splattered on the wall behind Angela as she fell to the ground, the man reinserted the pistol into where it came from and turned his eyes to Belinda, who stood, her eyes full of fear.

"Do you have any doubts of your own on my methods, Belinda? Do you wish to question my utter supremacy over you and your fellow Valkyries?"

"N-N-No, Master." Belinda said, lowering herself to her knees and lowering her forehead to the ground. The man made a noise of saitisfaction.

"Angela was a fool. I should have realized it. The Failure is a loner. He WILL go alone. Alone, he is helpless…and I can break him…yes, break him…" the man's said as his eyes sparkled with cruelty. But there was something going on behind that cruelty, a continued turning of the wheels, something hiding behind the desire to destroy that was even more ambitious and even more terrible.

"Come Belinda. It is time to go. It is time for you to aid your master to become the new force of Creation…the new Creation itself!" the man said, and pushed a button on his chair, leviatating over the dead legs of Angela and floating out the door. Belinda raised herself to her feet.

"Yes, Master Vagane! My life exists only to serve you!"

"Of course Belinda. That is the way it was meant to be." Dr. Vagane said with a cruel smirk.

__

The DBZ World barely survived the consuming madness of Agony.

Can it bear the **ATROCITIES **of Vagane?

****

Atrocities: The Sequel to Consuming Madness

It's coming. And it **will** consume you.

(And before I get any questions on who the hell this Dr. Vagane is, go back and read Consuming Madness. Specifically, go read Chapter 5, Erik's speech after the Agony battle on Kami Tower. Then you'll know. You'll know all too well. And Nik Nak…well, you were right to a degree.)


End file.
